Our story
Where tradition meets
modern leadership
Meditation — serious, practitioner-led, rooted in 1,200 years of Kyoto's living tradition — is the most practical leadership development available. Most executives who need it have never had real access to it. That is the only problem KMC is trying to solve.
Mission
What we do
To bring serious meditation practice — rooted in Kyoto's 1,200-year tradition — directly to the professionals and leaders who need it most. Clearer thinking. Stronger decisions. The resilience to lead well when the conditions are hardest.
Kyoto Meditation Center develops Kansho through deep engagement with Kyoto's living Buddhist traditions — drawing on over a millennium of contemplative practice rooted in the city that has been Japan's spiritual center since 794.
We translate this wisdom for professionals and leaders worldwide, independent of any single sect or institution. Religion is not our frame. Leadership is.
What makes this meditation different
The meditation that actually transfers to leadership is not widely accessible
Serious meditation practice — the kind refined specifically under conditions of high-stakes decision-making — is held by practitioners in Kyoto who rarely engage with the outside world. KMC was built by people who earned that access, and who can bring you directly into it.
Meditation at the depth that changes how you think under pressure
Surface-level meditation instruction is everywhere. The kind that transfers to high-stakes leadership — that changes decision-making, not just stress levels — requires practitioners fluent in both the tradition and the language of modern organizations. Most programs have one. KMC has both.
Meditation credibility earned inside the tradition — not marketed from outside it
No certification programs. No proprietary frameworks. KMC's meditation practice is rooted in Kyoto's active temple communities, led by a practitioner completing formal ordination in the Tendai lineage in 2026 — the lineage from which Japan's major meditation schools emerged. That is not something you acquire from a training course.
The team
Who we are
Daisuke Sasaki
CEO & Co-Founder
Buddhist monk, scholar, and practitioner with over 20 years immersed in Kyoto's contemplative traditions. Daisuke brings rare insider access to Japan's living Buddhist lineages — and the cultural fluency to translate their wisdom for international executive audiences.
Background: M.A. in Buddhist Studies, Ryukoku University (2013). Over 20 years of experience in Kyoto culture, meditation practice, and inbound cultural tourism.
Selected clients and collaborators include Microsoft, Apple, National Geographic, and executive and academic groups from leading international institutions.
LinkedIn →Hiroyuki Kubo
CTO/COO & Co-Founder
PhD in Informatics (Kyoto University, 2011). 10+ years as a software engineer. 4 years in Silicon Valley business development, operating at the intersection of deep tech and global markets.
Hiroyuki brings KMC's meditation work into contact with the pressures of modern business — AI disruption, organizational decisions, the specific anxieties of people running things at scale — as someone who operates in that world himself. The result is not approximation. It is fluency in both directions.
LinkedIn →Recognition
Get in touch
Questions or ideas?
For media, partnership, or general inquiries, reach out directly. We read every message.
Contact KMCKyoto Meditation Center, Co., Ltd.
Established May 2021 · Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan